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VITAL WEEKLY

Throughout many years we reviewed much music by Jim Denley; mostly released by his Split Records and, being an improviser, usually with many other players. Wind instruments have his overall interest but on this release he plays the flute, an instrument he first picked up in 1969 and which has never been the subject of a solo release. Being from Australia, he playing uses many influences, from the classical European approach, to Papua New Guinea, Amazone and with a touch of the shakuhachi but above all the flute traditions of the Solomon Islands. There are two pieces here, the title piece and 'For Celina Rokona', who herself played the Sukute, 'a curious combination of flute and percussion', which inspired this piece. Last week I also reviewed two releases by Sofa Music and I noted how they reached for that territory in between minimalism, modern classical and improvisation, which seems very much true for the music of Jim Denley, I would think. On the surface it sounds very much like a work of improvised music, solo without any additional layering or colouring using sound effects. Sometimes there is plink plonk approach, but that only seems to be happening when Denley moves from one part to another. Most of the time however he searches for repeating, microtonal sounds, sometimes rapidly changing and moving around, but then also spacious and slowly evolving. In both pieces, but more so in the second there is also a percussive element in the music, in the way Denley, using his fingers and lips on the body of the instrument, plays the sounds. There is no such thing, as I see it, as something exotic about this release, moving along many different types of playing and making this very much his own music, beyond styles or traditions. From the recent releases by Sofa Music this is probably the most improvised one, but it is surely another beauty.